Selling a car through an e-commerce portal turned out to be a frightening experience for a 24-year-old man after he was allegedly abducted for ransom by three people who fooled him by showing interest in purchasing the vehicle in Haryana's Sonepat district.

Gaurav, an employee at a Gohana-based private hospital, was abducted on Thursday for a Rs 5 lakh ransom. He was rescued later that night, the police said today.

He had uploaded an advertisement to sell his car on an e-commerce website a few days back, they said.

The accused called Gaurav and asked him to show his car as they wanted to purchase it, DSP (Gohana) Rajiv Deshwal said.

The trio had asked him to come to a bus-stand as they wanted to test drive the car, and then drove it towards Rohtak, the police said.

One posed as a buyer, the other as a mechanic and another as a car dealer, they said.

"They covered his face and tied him up with ropes after some time. They took him towards Anipura village in Hansi from where they gave the ransom call to Gaurav's family," SHO Gohana Police Station Ajaib Singh said.

The family approached the police for help and a team launched a manhunt to trace him. The location was found with the help of the cyber-cell in Hisar, the police said.

The police caught the trio, all B.Sc students, and rescued Gaurav, they said.

"They demanded Rs 5 lakh. The abductors further told my family that if they did not pay it till next day, they can pick up my body from the bus-stand," said Gaurav, a resident of Sonepat Gate area in Gohana.

The police seized a 9 mm pistol and a toy pistol from the the accused, Singh said.

The accused, in their mid 20s, are residents of Firozabad in Uttar Pradesh. They were booked under relevant sections including 364 A (kidnapping for ransom) of IPC and Arms Act, the police said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)